NEWS
Icy surface delays return to live racing at Penn National
Posted: Friday, February 16, 2007 5:25 PM
An icy racing surface has forced Penn National Race Course to cancel live racing on Tuesday night.
There has been no live racing at the Grantville, Pennsylvania, track since February 1.
The track lost programs on February 6, 7, and 8 due to extreme cold and sub-zero wind chills. This week’s cards were cancelled due to the snow and ice storm that ravaged the northeast and closed down major interstate highways in Pennsylvania for nearly two days.
“As of Friday afternoon, the track still had a three-inch thick layer of ice on the surface”, said Rob Marella, the track’s director of racing operations. “It was the opinion of our track maintenance manager that we should not address removing the ice until the temperatures moderated. The warmer weather will facilitate that task but that is not expected to happen until Monday.”
Penn National relayed the weather information to representatives of the local horsemen’s association and all parties were in agreement that the program for Tuesday night would be cancelled. Entries for that card would have been taken on Saturday morning.
“We are planning to commence work on removing the ice on Monday,” Marella said. “We will take entries that morning and, if all goes well, we are hoping to resume live racing Wednesday night.”
